Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-7700K IPC Review

We have now gotten to spend a good amount of time with Intel's new Core i7-7700K processor, codenamed "Kaby Lake." This processor family is set to be launched at CES next year. Today we are pushing through a suite of benchmarks to see what Kaby Lake has in store for the enthusiast compared to the 6700K.

The Core i7-7700K is a 4 core 8 thread processor with a core clock speed rated at 4.2GHz. It does have a Turbo Boost frequency of 4.5GHz. It has a TDP of 95 watts and is a socket LGA 1151 part, so you will find that it will work with most current Z170 chipset motherboards as well as upcoming Z270 motherboards. While we have not tested this yet, I would expect that some Z170 motherboards will require a BIOS update to work with Kaby Lake. It is built on what Intel calls a 14nm+ process node. This processor also utilizes DDR4 memory as you have likely guessed. It has an updated iGPU labeled "630" by Intel.

Since we have not been briefed by Intel on this part, we do not have the usual bevy of slides to share with you that will officially show you all the specifications, but we do have a pretty picture of its die.

As you know we like to look at IPC (Instructions Per Clock) when a new processor releases as we know most of our readers never intend to run these CPUs at their stock speeds. We are comparing the Intel Core i7-7700K and Core i7-6700K processors, both at 4.5GHz locked clocks, with a 2666MHz DDR4 memory bus. The scores have been taken on a yet-to-be released motherboard, but has full support for the new Kaby Lake processors as well as updated INF drivers. All we have done in taking these benchmarks is to switch out the CPU. As per usual, the "K" series CPU has an unlocked multiplier which will allow us to manipulate the clock speed and lock it in where we see fit.

Where we have made any system changes during testing, we will explain on that page.